Q&A with Fantic's Arnaud Vincent

Q&A with Fantic's Arnaud Vincent

Fantic Motor's 250cc bike is progressing slowly, but the machine seems to have reached a reasonable level of reliability as demonstrated by Arnaud Vincent's 18th place at Brno last weekend. The Frenchman, a former 125cc World Champion, explains that the new Italian team still has a long way to go before joining the regular top 15 finishers, but remains confident they will get there.

After a month-long break, how did it feel to be back on track?
To be honest, I wasn't very confident as the last time I rode the bike was back in July at Sachsenring. We had planned to do some testing in August, but the team had to cancel it so I wasn't really at ease when we arrived at Brno. The first session was kind of tough, but it got better and better as I got more laps in.
Anything new on the bike for this Czech Grand Prix?
The team worked a lot, doing some dyno testing. For this race they brought some new cylinders and various new parts. It allowed us to improve a bit.
How did the race go? You were pretty far down the grid, but after a good start, you were able to take 18th…
It's not a great result of course, we're still out of the points but things are coming together, the bike is more reliable. The team was happy with the result, it showed that we are on the right track. I had to push as much as I could and fought hard against Sekiguchi and Cardenas to get that result.
It was the last European Grand Prix ahead of the flyaway races. What do you expect between now and the end of the season?
It's going to be tough for sure, because there will many races in a short space of time. We're still not where we would like to be, but we have to keep working hard so we can end the season on a positive note.